By day I’m an interlibrary loan bounty hunter for the Metropolitan Library System. By night I’m husband, father, and a student pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Sciences degree. In the space between I write, draw, and cope with a chronic condition of “hobbyism.” This means a lot of things interest me, and I engage in those interests with a bottomless well of enthusiasm that I draw from a pocket dimension using forbidden sorceries.

My bonafides include a BA in English literature with a focus on medieval romance; this is a fancy pants phrase for really old stories about questing knights, dragons, and ogres (oh my!) This book learnin’ has given me a vast arsenal of words and a fair grasp of how to put them together to make moving pictures in your brain computer. I write fantasy and sci-fi mostly but also dabble in essays and criticisms – you can take the kid out of the English department, but you can’t take the English department out of the kid.

FAQ-thingies:

What is House Johnston and this “Never Unprepared” thing?

You know how the houses in Game of Thrones have house words? Mottos such as, “Winter is coming, Ours is the Fury, We do not Sow,” etc? Well, that was a real on noble coats of arms in the Middle Ages. Several years ago, I discovered that my family name’s coat of arms had the phrase, “nunquam non paratus” written underneath. This translates to – you guessed it – Never Unprepared. It’s metal as shit, and I’ll own it, and it’s something that I strive toward (but fail at a lot.)

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My name is Brandon. I'm a writer, cartoonist, husband, and father. This is the online space where I talk about life, family, art, videogames, and anything else that interests me. Disclaimer: a lot of things interest me.

The Trap is Sprung

A month ago I upgraded my phone and I decided to go with the Galaxy Note 4. In a world where the smartphone is averaging five and a half inches in size, I figured I may as well get one that is designed to use that screen real estate for something other than watching Youtube videos. I have a predisposition to jotting down notes by hand and doodling, so the Note 4 seemed like a no brainer.

I’m sure some of my experience up to this point is part of a honeymoon phase, but as of now there is nothing I don’t like about this phone. I always thought the stylus on the Note series was a gimmick, but it’s my favorite feature so far. I’ve used it to write all of my lists and notes by and I’ve begun to draw a little. I’ve drawn and sketched since I was a kid. Some of the first stories I ever told were through drawings. I really admire artists that can work in the digital medium, and I’ve always wanted to dabble in it myself. Well, it’s hard as frak. The above sketch is the rough interpretation of a scene from a short story I’m working on. The inspiration for this story comes from two places. It comes from that irrational fear that comes over you when you wake from a deep sleep. You’re sure that something is watching you from the deep shadows in the corner of the room, and if you look hard enough your sleep addled mind can almost make out its shape. It’s also a twist on the monster in the closet. What if there really were a creature come to take a young boy from his bed. What if that boy was ready for the monster? I’m excited to get it done. I’ve got a couple more weeks before my deadline, so I better get back to working on it.